In a Substack post on February 16, Governor Spencer Cox presented what he called An accounting of my actions on DEI. It appears to be his first article, and utilizes a “coming-soon” suffix in the URL that suggests it was hastily published.
Not to offend his good readers, he has the audacity to call his critics light readers who communicate with elected officials in 280 characters, stoked by anger, reactionary/don’t read the articles, don’t listen to the interview, the progressive left. Way to #DisagreeBetter, amiright? There is one truth – that there is a “growing and divisive political ideology behind DEI”, but it’s coming from the conservative right.
He quickly calls what is now a cherry-picked conservative trope: “We used to aspire towards the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. of a future where our children “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”” Maybe we start by educating Governor Cox on the Martin Luther continued to say in the very next paragraph of his “I Have a Dream” speech.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.”
Martin Luther King – I Have a Dream, 1963
The difference, apparently, is that we are in Utah, but our governor still has his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification.
Utahns live in a heavily gerrymandered state bent on breaking the voices of what he calls the “progressive left”. He disregards our history; that Republican legislators who thwart the will of its people by over-riding voter mandates, then attempt to legislate future opposition from referendums by setting the bar higher. Our governor signs bills that take away freedom of speech, and freedom of expression. He does not veto, he does not comment, he simply signs. His republican counterparts submit bills that dismantle peoples’ right to organize, or to force their religion into schools, or to tell a woman what she can and can’t do with her own body. And in light of DEI, he works with his Republican legislators to weaken citizen review boards after a series of police shootings that killed POC and disabled individuals. And he takes away the offices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from our universities and for public places, even after Davis School District is sued successfully not just once, but TWICE for discrimination. Even though we have a problem with Patriot Front placing banners on our overpasses, and passing Nazi literature around on campuses. He says we need a neutral space to let everyone be comfortable thinking and saying whatever they want. And it’s all for a better purpose, right? Nope.
None of this is new. In fact, the playbook for this doesn’t even start in Utah. In 2023 the far right introduced at least 65 bills to limit DEI in higher education in 25 states and the U.S. Congress. This year there are currently more than 30 bills across the U.S. targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at public colleges. Utah is a cuckold to the ideology of a national far-right agenda. Bills introduced in Utah followed other states actions, and are typically copy/pastes of other state bills.
He says “I had no idea that there were these many programs, these many people working in these offices. And so then the question is, well, what are the outcomes? Are we actually making a difference? And we’re not seeing any evidence that they’re actually working.” The funny thing about providing safe spaces for marginalized groups is that when it’s working, nothing happens. Nothing makes the papers. I’m not sure what Cox was expecting. Ironically, he broke DEI because it was working.
Grievances about the illogic of his article:
- Cox really doesn’t like equity. He states in the 2nd paragraph of section “The problem with DEI” that “it’s important to note that the E in DEI stands for “equity” – equal outcomes, and not “equality” – equal opportunity).” Inclusion comes with equitable outcomes, not with the presentation of opportunity.
- It’s clear that Cox doesn’t know what “woke” means. Her prefers to use the conservative slur that the word is evolving to, and fails to recognize the significance of that word’s history. Stay woke, people.
- He claims that diversity programs are “drawing battle lines” and references Eboo Patel to justify his stance, but fails to recognize that Patel was recognized and celebrated by the University of Utah department of Equity, Diversion & Inclusion mere months ago.
- His primary evidence is that a DEI statement was included in university application packages. This is literally the only tangible thing that he can point to when claiming that Universities are using identitarianism to force people into boxes, and into victimhood. And this is AFTER he signed legislation last year that prevent teachers from displaying personal items in their rooms. God forbid that anyone actually have an identity. If this is supposed to be Cox’s smoking gun, why all the huffery puffery when it could have been resolved with a simple HR update?
- In his arguments, he defends white kids, and he defends men. He says “I care deeply about our brown kids and our black kids.” I would ask for the numbers here, because he doesn’t provide any.
- Cox says “Government can and must be race-blind, but that does not make us racism-blind.” This is not true. Government must respect the rights of its constituents, but nowhere does it say to be “race-blind”. To say this is to ignore history, culture, and identity.
- Cox mentions a history of segregation, but fails to mention the actions of the legislature (again) using vouchers to segregate kids with disabilities away from public schools, or to consolidate programs away from home schools.
- Offhand, I’m also concerned that Cox’s chosen platform happens to be Substack, which has recently been described as a newsletter-hosting site with a Nazi problem, and accused of paid advances to several controversial writers, while some writers with long histories of anti-trans work are thriving.
The problem, apparently, is that Cox wants to turn a blind eye to the real problems that DEI offices were addressing by disbanding these offices, creating a “success and support” office with no parameters to build from and with no federal supports. His defense of this horrid legislation will result in the loss of federal dollars for state programs, potentially lose Salt Lake’s bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympics, and will certainly be fought in courts at the expense of Utahns.